Athens is home to one of the only rehabilitation centers in the country for cult survivors or those who have been spiritually abused.
One of the hardest things about leaving a cult is that you have nothing to return to — nowhere to go but backward. You’re under the heavy weight of mind control.
That’s what Larry Pile said he was feeling when he first heard of Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center, known as a resource for cult survivors. Years later, he worked and retired from the organization. Now he is a frequent volunteer.
He was a part of a Christian movement he helped found with three others at Ohio State University that turned intensely controlling, causing him to abandon the group and eventually come in contact with Wellspring, now located on Richland Avenue.
“The leaders — I wasn’t one of them — became more controlling and began laying down laws so people were starting to hurt logically and spiritually, trying to keep laws they couldn’t keep and live up to behavior standards they couldn’t get (up to at) that point,” Pile said.
Wellspring is one of the only treatment centers for survivors of spiritual and cult abuse in the nation, said Gregory Sammons, director. Since its opening in 1986, the center has seen hundreds of patients from around the world step through its doors for its five-to-10 day spiritual abuse treatment programs. Many of the nonprofit’s employees are survivors of a cult or were once treated at Wellspring.
The programs consist mostly of educational workshops and one-on-one therapy — about two hours a day with a therapist, and three hours a day with workshop instructors, depending on which package is chosen — to understand what happened to the cult survivor and how they fell prey to “brainwashing.” If clients ask, Wellspring will also provide services to interpret Christian scripture.
“Over time, a leader will say you need to check in with me before you make any major decisions, like going out of town,” Sammons said. “You might miss out on what God has for you this weekend, if you plan to visit your family.
“It starts out when someone offers you a favor, and in every culture — if I offer you a favor, you feel indebted. But in a destructive group, that debt never gets paid off.”
Wellspring’s most popular treatment program, lasting 10 days, costs patients $6,050. Patients are required to first pay a $350 deposit, which is deducted in the overall cost of treatment, before going through an hours-long phone screening with Sammons to make sure they’d fit the program. If Sammons or the patients feels they should be treated elsewhere, they’ll receive $200 of their deposit back.
The five-day program costs $3,050, with the same $350 deposit subtracted.
“People don’t want to talk about the idea that somebody could control our minds,” Sammons said.
Patients typically have been either kicked out or walked away from a cult-like organization and come to Wellspring depressed, anxious or afraid they’ll go to hell because they’ve left the group.
Sammons said it’s necessary to have the center, 525 Richland Ave., so close to Ohio University’s campus because it’s easy for vulnerable college-aged students to be absorbed into a cult.
“All of us at certain points of our lives are more vulnerable than at others,” Sammons said. “Subtle things happen over time when we get involved in a group or organization. The ugliness doesn’t come out until later, and at that point you might be isolated from family or friends.”
Sammons and his wife were once victims of a controlling Christian church — which led him to contact Wellspring’s late founder, Paul Martin. At the time, the rehabilitation center was located in a discrete Albany cabin, just west of Athens. In its infancy, the organization was mostly known through word-of-mouth.
Roughly 950 patients have gone through the center’s rehabilitation program since, Sammons said. Typically, about 10 patients are seen a year with several consultations in between. In its busiest years, Wellspring has treated about 60 patients.
The organization’s proximity to Athens isn’t a mistake. Historically, Athens has had its share of cult activity.
Athens Interim Sheriff Rodney Smith said he could recall one such cult-like church in Athens County more than 20 years ago that met sheriff’s deputies at the door armed with weapons when the department had been dispatched to its location. Smith wasn’t positive of the church’s name.
“It was weird,” Smith said. “They truly had armed guards where you couldn’t even get in there. You almost had to arrest the guard(s).”
Sammons said cases are rarely referred to them through the Athens Police Department or Athens County Sheriff’s Office, as organizations that could be considered “cults” tend to operate legally.
Defining a cult is difficult for many, he added, though he personally defines it as a group that has an authoritative leader and is destructively manipulative.
“No one joins a cult,” Sammons said. “People join organizations when we’re looking to better ourselves or are looking for enlightenment, spiritual comfort. That’s what the cults seem to offer, and the groups will target college students. We’re all vulnerable.”
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